REPRISE (2006) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Joachim Trier

Written by - Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt

Starring - Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman Høiner, Viktoria Winge

"REPRISE marked the directorial feature debut or Norwegian director JOACHIM TRIER, and already established him as an exciting new voice in international cinema. 

It is the story of friends Erik and Phillip, two young men determined to become acclaimed writers. Their paths, however, are very different. Erik is constantly rejected by publishers, who see nothing of interest in his writing. Phillip, on the other hand, achieves instant recognition with his first novel. 

The story develops at a frantic pace, with an edgy and bold style made of handheld camera work and sharp editing. The approach gives REPRISE a sense of impulsiveness and highlights its intuitive and organic nature that reveals a literary structure, very suited given its central characters, where even its imperfections feel like the very same that might be found in the truest form of stream of consciousness. 

It also somehow seems to echo the emotional tumultuousness experienced internally by the two characters and seems to represent an evolution of the organic, intuitive and vibrant style of European filmmakers of the sixties, that dealt with similar anxieties of the youth movement of its times. This anxiety expands on the seemingly conventional storyline, and is echoed by the excellent and brutally honest character portrayal, where especially the two leading characters are portrayed as troubled and flawed, symbolising the artistic ordeal and emotionally painstaking journey of undertaking an artistic career path, most of which originate from the arduous task of balancing obsessive ambitions and artistic integrity with more worldly things such as relationships and love in the real world."

Drama, Norway